stories road update

Expansion

 

A view of the patch - after the Chef Solaire and I cleaned it up and transplanted some of the Hollyhocks up the central line of the strip and planted more Crocosmia, Aquilegia, Euphorbia and Hardy Geraniums. You get the sense of the scale of the beast now. For the first time people driving by made positive remarks (instead of merely lewd ones).

 

I have planted some Sarcococca Confusa to try and a. get some winter sustenance for wildlife and b. protect this purple Cordyline (its coming back to life with all this rain... but this section is otherwise pretty barren).

The next picture shows some of the diverse plants a bit more clearly - the California poppies and Sisyrinchium and unusual Euphorbia. We took quite a few Hollyhocks up to Stories Road, but there are plenty more in need of another home.

Grr

 

I've just come back from my parents' amazing garden with several more plants for this patch - the tried and trusted Euphorbia and Aquilegia, but can't hack this pissing weather. If its dry tomorrow morning [Monday 9th] I'm meeting the Chef Solaire and we'll continue the glory and thin out a few of the fearsome Hollyhocks. 

I wish other people in Peckham could be rallied - everytime I'm on the 436 I see patches that could easily be filled with plants - esp the dead/empty planters outside the firestation...and underneath the Yucca forest near the bus station... Saw some more Southwark devastation yesterday - a plot of land outside newish housing near Queens Rd station was quite overgrown - but with a fair amount of pollinating wild flowers/weeds, now stripped back to nothing. Gah.

Life and Death in a Garden

Brief update. The tree pit is Morrison's carpark is a washout. Too much foliage from the untrimmed Magnolia? Erratic weather? Anyway, the sole survivor is the Euphorbia. All 3 of the nasturtium seeds I planted in the bare patches that some neighbours call 'gardens' have been 'weeded' out. No, nothing has replaced them. However, 2 more have spouted. One is in the raised bed next to the job centre on Camberwell Green - in which the cornflowers, golden rod and daisies are also surviving. The other is the brilliant though vulnerable location of the tree pit immediately outside The Tiger. This is a big pit and would be ideal were it not for the regular digging up of the pavement and the habit of dumping rubbish bags against the tree. The seedling is inside the mesh around the tree. I will label it and hope.

Nothing But Flowers

Quickly snapped in the evening - but you get the drift right? Flowers! Lychnis, Daisies, California Poppies, Hollyhocks... on Dog Kennel Hill everything is going bananas. As I thought there are Hollyhocks springing up EVERYWHERE - they really need transplanting. I added in 2 x Day Lilies [poisonous to cats you know] and 1 x Liatris, and did 2 bags of rapido style weeding.

Before/After

Alrighty. So I met up with the Chef Solaire and enjoyed revamping a tree pit with a. company, b. some fresh compost, c. a slew of plants, and d. passersby who actually talked to us! The Chef scored the compost and some very clay based soil which we dug in after removing loads of cooch grass [sp?] and groundsel and moss and a few small tree roots too. It is a pretty congested pit, however the plants are tough and they will have to cope. We planted: 2 x Dipsacus [teasel], about 5 sprouting roots of Echinops [blue thistle], 1 x Liatris, 1 x Aquilegia. Plus.... I accosted a woman carrying a tray of Busy Lizzies. I thought she was coming to donate on purpose, rather than because I guilt-tripped her... Anyway she donated 2 of them [no nectar! but some colour....]. Another woman en route to Church asked me if I was afraid of being bitten... Of all possible worries that really wasn't among them.  Then, after I had gone home I realised that I hadnt taken an 'after' photo so returned with the lovely N with a batch of vinca, a pink hardy geranium and one of those lilac michaelmas daisies [surprise, Chef!]. So it looks drastically improved and hopefully everything will get going...

On the dole

One of our cats, Finn the Mighty, has been very sick [90% better now] and the vet suggested something in our garden may be the culprit [shock and horror - we have no lilies and no foxgloves for that very reason]. J found out that annual cornflowers [Centaurea Cyanus] are toxic for cats - and thus, alas, I pulled all 6 of them out. They have gone to the raised bed next to Camberwell Green Job Centre, along with 1 x Solidago, 1 x bronze fennel, 2 x shasta daisies and 1 x helio-something [yellow perennial sunflowerish thing]. I cleared up 2 bags of detritus and weeds to fit them in, and the soil is very poor... [any donations gratefully accepted]. luckily my lovely neighbour N joined me in watering them with liquid feed so maybe they will all take. Passed by on the 12 later that day and no one has taken them. Photos to follow.